Your tonsils are two little lymph nodes that are found on either side of the back of your throat. Considering that the tonsils are there solely to keep your body from getting infected, it is rather ironic that they themselves can get infected, which is what tonsillitis is. Luckily, there are many simple home remedies for tonsillitis.

While anyone at any age can get tonsillitis, it is most commonly found in children and teenagers. Tonsillitis can be caused by just an illness that has taken a turn for the worse and it is rather contagious seeing as it can be caused by so many different things.

 

Symptoms

There is a wide range of symptoms, but you do not have to have all them in order to have tonsillitis. The symptoms include the following:

• Sore throat that comes with trouble swallowing
• Bad breath
• Headaches
• Chills
• Fever
• Earaches
• Scratchy sounding voice

 

Causes

As aforementioned, almost any illness can cause tonsillitis, but it most commonly comes as a follow up after strep throat, a common cold, the Epstein-Barr virus, and just germs.

 

Home Remedies for Tonsillitis

1. Stay Away

One easy way to not even chance contracting tonsillitis is to just not go near people that are suffering from it or that are ill. If you are unable to avoid ill people, then wash your hands often when working or talking with people that have a cough, sore throat, or sneeze. If you have tonsillitis, respect other people and distance yourself until the condition has passed. 

 

2. Gargle Salt Water

To make a rinse to gargle, you need to stir a half teaspoon of salt into four ounces of warm water until the salt is dissolved. Gargling with this for several seconds (making sure to spit) before rinsing out with normal water can help to calm inflammation, pain, and the sore throat that are all caused by tonsillitis.

 

3. Tea and Honey

With this tea, you do not just want normal honey; you want raw honey. Raw honey is much better for you because it has antibacterial compounds that can help fight in infections. You should be careful however if you have seasonal allergies.

Stir the honey into fennel or ginger tea. Both teas lessen inflammation and pain. So between the antibacterial powers of the honey with the anti-inflammation compounds of the tea, you should be feeling less pain pretty soon.

 

4.  Licorice Lozenges

Lozenges are like a cough or throat drops and are made to help with sore throats. If you get a cough or throat drops with licorice in them, it can help to drastically calm swelling and inflammation, both of which should be able to lessen the pain you are suffering because of tonsillitis.  It should be noted that these should not be given to younger children as it could be a choking hazard for them.

5. Ice Chips

Cold anything is amazing for anything inflammation issue. The cold constricts the swelled blood vessels and lessens the pain. So when you have a sore throat, enjoy anything cold. Popsicles, ice chips, frozen or nearly frozen drinks with some ice in them, ice cream, sherbert, whatever you are in the mood for.

 

6. Humidifiers

Dry air can make a sore throat even worse. So keep a humidifier going in your bedroom and the rooms that you spend the most amount of time in. The cool-mist ones work the best. If you do not yet have a humidifier, then taking a steaming shower or sitting in the bathroom to breathe in the steam from someone else’s shower can do you some good as well.

7. Holy Basil

Holy Basil has anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties that should help to calm your sore throat while killing the infection and building up your immune system. You can get basil tea premade in the little bags or you can make it on your own.

To make your own basil tea, you will need ten to 12 basil leaves and a half cup of water. Boil the leaves in the water for ten minutes and strain out the leaves. Once the tea is down boiling, you can add some lemon that will also help to build up your immunity because of the vitamin C.

If the lemon juice made the tea too tart, you can add a teaspoon of honey (which has healing powers of its own it is raw) or two grams of black pepper for a spicier tea. You should drink this three times a day for two or three to get the best results.

 

8. Turmeric

This is another gargle solution like the salt water. For this solution, you need a cup of boiled water, half a teaspoon of powdered turmeric, and a half teaspoon of salt. You want to mix these in and let the salt dissolve. Then let the mixture cool to where it is warm but no longer steaming and you gargling once at night right before bed and once in the morning. This mixture helps because it helps with infection, the inflammation, and the other throat annoyances.

If you cannot stand the taste of the salt and turmeric, then mix a teaspoon of turmeric powder in a glass of warmed milk with a pinch of black pepper and drink it once every night for three nights. It has the same effect and quickens the healing time.

9. Cinnamon

Cinnamon is good for fighting tonsillitis because it fights the infection and swelling which should lessen the pain as well. You can add cinnamon to your foods or you can make a sort of tea with it.

Add two teaspoons of honey and a teaspoon of cinnamon powder to a cup of hot water and drink it twice or thrice a day for a week. Make sure that the mixture is still warm when you drink it and that you sip on it rather than finishing the drink in one quick gulp.

 

10. Fenugreek

Like most of the other tips, fenugreek tackles swelling, pain, and infection. To use fenugreek against tonsillitis, boil two cups with two tablespoons of fenugreek seeds for a half hour. Once the half hour is up, you remove the seeds and let it cool. After the mixture is to a temperature where it is warm but not hot enough to burn you, you need to take a sip and gargle it, spitting out after half a minute. Do this twice a day until your throat no longer hurts.

 

11. Rest Up

Get enough sleep is always important, but getting more sleep when you are ill is even more important than that. In addition to getting more sleep, skip out on things and situations that can cause you stress and it might be best to skip out on the workouts until you are feeling better. Letting yourself rest and just taking a couple lazy days can do wonders for fighting off the infection and building your immune system.

12. Over the Counter Painkillers

Over the counter, painkillers can help both the pain from your tonsillitis and calm a fever if you have one. If you have already spoken about your tonsillitis, you should ask the doctor what painkillers is it safe to take if they have you on a medication already.

 

13. Soft Foods

If your tonsillitis is making hard to swallow, then the last thing you want is hard and chunky foods. Instead, go for much softer things. Juices and smoothies, applesauce (homemade and without all the extra added sugars is best), soup, bananas, pears, mashed potatoes, yogurt, jello, and things like that are all gentle on the throat.  

14. Hydrate

Making sure that you get enough to drink vital. Cold drinks are best. ice water, cold sports drinks, clear and refrigerated juices. The things you want to avoid are hot or carbonated drinks, or drink with acid and sugar (so avoid orange and pineapple juice).

 

15. Raw Honey

This was mentioned, but not fully talked about. Raw honey can be a huge help in fighting tonsillitis because it helps to coat the throat to sooth it. It has been finding that there are 60 known bacterias that raw honey can kill, in addition to infections, fungi, and viruses. Because of the antiviral and antibacterials in the raw honey, it helps to speed up the healing time. So the next time you making some tea, add in some raw honey. If you are feeling adventurous, add in some honey with cinnamon, ginger, or turmeric.

16. Dos and Don’ts When Eating

When fighting tonsillitis, there are certain foods that can make it worse and foods that can help to fight it off. This tip is entirely what those foods are and where they fall under those two categories.

Some foods to avoid because they can weaken your immune system while harming your circulation and digestion are dairy products, refined vegetable oils, foods with lots of sugars or bleached flour, shellfish, foods with pesticides, artificial ingredients, soy, nightshades, and gluten.

Foods to enjoy that have antioxidants and will help you to get better are. most herbs and spices, broccoli, salmon, nuts, berries, seeds, cabbage, omega-3, pumpkin, unrefined oils, and cauliflower.

 

17. Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar has plenty of antiviral, anti-inflammation, and antibacterial that will help kill the infection and ease the pain. To use apple cider vinegar, you need to mix a tablespoon of it into a glass of warm water with some raw honey and gurgle it. It helps best if you do this once or twice a day.

 

18. Onion

Onions fight bacteria and inflammation. It is rather easy to use onions for fighting tonsillitis. All you do is blend up an onion with half cup of water, add in some honey, and drink slowly throughout the day. Make sure that you do not drink all of this is one go and that you drink other things as well.

 

19. Chamomile Tea

Drinking warm (not hot) chamomile tea can help with swelling and pain. You can add honey as well for that extra boost. You can make chamomile with the little tea bags by letting it steep for five to ten minutes. If you find that the warmness of the tea makes your throat worse, then you can cool it as well and enjoy it cold like an iced tea.

20. Ginger

The thing that makes ginger so great for combatting tonsillitis is its gingerol that fights bacteria and inflammation as well as stopping virus activity and movement. You can make another kind of tea with ginger by boiling an inch of ginger root in a cup of water for five minutes, letting it cool, and adding in some honey. It has been found that this tea is most hopeful if it was drunk about three times a day.

21. Mixed Veggie Juice

All three of the veggies needed to make this juice are loaded with vitamins C and A which help to fight off tonsillitis and build up your immune system. The veggie juices and the amounts you need are. 50 mL of beetroot, 150 mL of carrot, and 50 mL of cucumber. Drink this once a day and you should be feeling better soon.

 

22. Peppermint Tea

This tea is huge for fighting off tonsillitis. It fights inflammation, bacteria, viruses and has analgesic compounds. Just drink mint tea three or four times a day with some honey and you should feel better.

 

23. Epsom Salts

Epsom salts are pure magnesium sulfate and it soothes inflammation all over the body. So two or three times a week, take 15 or 20-minute bath with a cup of Epsom salt mixed into the water. This can also help you to relax and destress which can help to you fight off tonsillitis that much faster.   

There are a few signs that you should watch for to know that it is time to talk to your doctor. If you have a sore throat for more than two days, it is best to talk to your doctor because you can either have strep or tonsillitis; if your muscles become weaker and you have a stiff neck; and if you have a fever topping 103 degrees.

 

Sources

https://www.stylecraze.com/articles/effective-home-remedies-for-tonsillitis/#HowToCureTonsillitisNaturally

https://food.ndtv.com/health/5-effective-home-remedies-for-tonsils-1631116

https://www.healthline.com/health/home-remedies-for-tonsilitis#salt-water

https://www.healthline.com/health/tonsillitis#outlook